Seminarios de Negocios 2024

                  Tel.: 5169 7301

Javier Marenco | UTDT

"Aplicando técnicas de optimización combinatoria para programar los horarios de clases en la UTDT"

Abstract
Todos los semestres la Universidad lleva a cabo el proceso de planificación académica, que consiste en determinar el horario y el aula para cada clase de cada sección de cada curso, y programar la preinscripción automática de los estudiantes ingresantes. Se trata de un procedimiento que involucra a muchas personas y que es cada vez más difícil de realizar de forma manual, en un contexto en el que la Universidad está creciendo sostenidamente. En esta charla, presentaremos un proyecto que involucra la implementación de herramientas informáticas para asistir al Departamento de Registro de Alumnos al momento de realizar esta tarea. Describiremos el desarrollo de modelos de programación matemática para el diseño de los horarios, la asignación de aulas y la preinscripción de los estudiantes ingresantes, el resultado de la prueba piloto realizada para el semestre en curso, y las acciones que actualmente se están llevando a cabo para implementar esta herramienta.

Javier Marenco es profesor e investigador en Ciencias de la Computación, especializado en temas de optimización combinatoria. Se desempeña como profesor investigador asociado en UTDT. Sus áreas de interés incluyen temas de programación lineal entera, combinatoria poliedral y aplicaciones de investigación operativa. Completó su doctorado en Ciencias de la Computación y su licenciatura en Ciencias de la Computación en la Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales de la UBA.

Martín Rossi | UdeSA

"Incorporating Cultural Context into Safe-Water Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Egypt"

Abstract
Adoption rates of safe drinking water are low in developing countries. In regions where centralized water treatment infrastructure is absent, the conventional policy response is to enhance access to safe water via point-of-use chlorination. Previous research, however, reports a ceiling in adoption rates of chlorinated water at 50 percent, even when chlorine is provided for free. We report experimental evidence that a cultural-friendly technology, which provides filtered water that resembles local traditional water, leads to higher adoption rates and willingness to pay than usual chlorinated water provision. We document adoption rates of 91 percent for filtered water, 42 percentage points higher than for chlorinated water. Willingness to pay is 61 percent higher for filtered water compared to chlorinated water. Ancillary experiments indicate that taste significantly influences the way individuals perceive the healthiness of water. According to our findings, policymakers should redirect their efforts away from the current mainstream approach of subsidized chlorine and instead explore alternative strategies that consider local communities’ culture and preferences.

Martín Antonio Rossi is Professor of Economics at Universidad de San Andres. He received his PhD in Economics from University of Oxford. His research focuses on the intersection between development economics, political economy, and public economics, and it has been published in leading academic journals such as Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, American Economic Review: Insights, Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Development Economics. He is research affiliate for J-PAL, and his professional activities include works for UNICEF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank.

Guillermo Solovey | Universidad de Buenos Aires

"Incorporating Cultural Context into Safe-Water Interventions: Experimental Evidence from Egypt"

Julio Elías | Universidad del CEMA

"Compulsory Voting, Collateral Sanctions, and Political Inequality: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment"

Santiago Gallino | University of Pennsylvania

"Order-Based Trade Credits and Operational Performance in the Nanostore Retail Channel"

Abstract
Millions of nanostores serve bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers in emerging markets. Their suppliers, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, struggle with high operational costs that largely stem from shopkeepers’ liquidity constraints. We empirically investigate whether suppliers can improve operational performance by allowing nanostore shopkeepers to delay order payment by a short period of time. We term this delayed payment alternative “order-based trade credit” (OBTC) and examine the key trade-off  that suppliers face when transacting with it. While OBTC can create efficiency gains when selling and delivering products to nanostores, it is risky, as shopkeepers might default on their credit lines. We leverage data from a nanostore supplier offering OBTC to many of the nanostores it serves over an extended period of time. These data allow us to assess the effect of this novel policy on the operational performance of the supplier through a difference-in-differences approach with nearest-neighbor matching and a control function approach relying on exogenous variation isolated from two instruments. We find that OBTC leads to substantial gains for nanostore suppliers across a range of important operational drivers. Therefore, the benefits of OBTC compensate the risk that suppliers take in financing shopkeepers’ inventory under a wide range of scenarios. When examining the mechanism underlying this effect, we find that OBTC mitigates  shopkeepers’  cash shortage and leads to greater engagement with the supplier’s sales representatives. Investigating the heterogeneity in the effect, we find that nanostores receiving less product relative to others in the sample benefit the most from OBTC. Overall, we provide evidence that OBTC, an interest-free financing scheme for retail microbusinesses in emerging markets, may be economically sustainable despite the associated risks. OBTC has the potential to help narrowing down the financing gap that other schemes, such as microcredits, struggle to close as a result of their reliance on expensive interest rates and taxing requirements on  microentrepreneurs.

Santiago Gallino studies both digital transformation and store execution issues in retail. He has researched with and consulted for numerous organizations. His research has won multiple awards and has appeared in journals such as Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Operations Research, Journal of Marketing, Sloan Management Review, and Harvard Business Review. His research has been covered frequently by several media outlets.
Before joining Wharton, Professor Gallino worked at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He holds a PhD in Operations and Information Management and a Master’s in Statistics from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a Fulbright Scholar, an MBA from IAE Business School, and a degree in Electrical Engineering from Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Tatiana Rosá | Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

"Schooling and Intergenerational Mobility: Consequences of Expanding Higher Education Institutions"

Tatiana Rosá is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She specializes in the fields of Industrial Organization and Innovation. She holds a PhD in Economics and a Master in Economics & Finance from CEMFI.

Abstract
International migration can contribute importantly to economic development in countries of origin and destination. The effects of migration critically depend on immigrant integration. We experimentally evaluate the impact of information provision and migrants’ aspirations on immigrant integration using a field experiment among Cape Verdean immigrants in Portugal. Providing immigrants with better information sources about integration processes promotes integration outcomes such as migration status regularization and quality of employment. It furthermore affects those left behind. Targeting migrant integration barriers reduces material remittances but improves political participation and attitudes over gender equity in the country of origin.

Julia Seither is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Universidad del Rosario. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics from the Nova School of Business and Economics in 2019 and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago and Universidad del CEMA in the Joint Initiative for Latin American Experimental Economics (JILAEE). Her research interests are at the intersection of development and behavioral economics, and, in particular, on the behavioral biases of micro-entrepreneurs, migration, and the development of social norms. Julia is currently the Executive Director of the Rosario Experimental and Behavioral Economics Lab (REBEL), the Network Director (together with Stanislao Maldonado) of LACEA-BRAIN, an External Member of NOVAFRICA, and a Researcher and Director at JILAEE.

Viernes 26 de julio

Luca Henkel | Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Chicago and the University of CEMA

"Proud to Not Own Stocks: How Identity Shapes Financial Decisions"

This paper introduces a key factor influencing households’ decision to invest in the stock market: how people view stockholders. Using surveys we conducted with nearly 8,500 individuals from eleven countries, we document that a large majority of respondents view stockholders negatively on identity-relevant characteristics – they are perceived as greedy, gambler-like, and selfish individuals. By linking survey and administrative data, we show that these negative perceptions strongly predict households’ stock market participation with a magnitude comparable to leading alternative determinants. We then provide experimental evidence that negative perceptions causally influence decision-making: if people’s views about stockholders become more positive, they become more likely to choose stock-related investments. We further provide evidence that perceptions are stereotypical as they exaggerate actual group differences, leading people to hold overly negative views of stockholders. Our findings provide a novel explanation for the puzzlingly low stock market participation rates around the world, new perspectives on the malleability of financial decision-making, and evidence for the importance of identity in economic decision-making.

Luca Henkel is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Chicago and the University of CEMA as part of the Joint Initiative for Latin American Experimental Economics. He received his Ph.D. in 2023 from the University of Bonn and will join the Erasmus School of Economics in Rotterdam as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Finance in Fall 2024. His research fields are behavioral economics and household finance. In particular, he focuses on examining the determinants and consequences of financial and moral decision-making using experiments, surveys, and linked survey-administrative data.

Abstract

Abstract
This study explores sustainability strategies of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies (DEEs), as suppliers in global value chains (GVCs). As they pursue environmental upgrading that captures value from improved sustainability performance, existing studies show financing constitutes a barrier for DEE SMEs to compete in sustainable markets. This is occurring despite growing impact investing that aims to generate positive and measurable sustainability outcomes. We examine how DEE SMEs’ integration in GVCs influences their strategies and ability to access impact investing. Based on a qualitative study on 63 SME coffee suppliers and thirteen impact investors, we show that DEE SMEs in GVCs access impact investing through a process of building financial, managerial and relational capabilities to obtain funding for improving environmental performance that we refer to as “financial upgrading”.This new concept is central to the interplay of DEE SMEs sustainability strategies and access to impact investing for environmental upgrading. Our findings advance notions of upgrading by uncovering financial upgrading intertwined with economic and environmental upgrading. Given the positioning of DEE SMEs in the GVC we show that production organization influences sustainability strategies. Our study connects two dimensions, impact investing and production organization, currently disconnected in prevailing views on sustainability and impact finance. We contribute new understanding of the link between environmental upgrading and financial resources. As well, this work contributes to literatures on sustainable finance and production in GVCs by highlighting the role of SMEs and impact investors for supply chain sustainability beyond the dominant focus on MNCs.

Tommaso Ferretti holds an LLM from Università di Pisa, an MPA from LUISS University, and completed his Ph.D. in Management at McGill University. Tommaso Ferretti’s research is situated at the nexus of international strategy, sustainability innovation, and global governance. Understanding how emerging market suppliers operating in global value chains contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals lies at the top of his research program. He is particularly interested in the study of how impact investing and public policies enable the sustainability strategies of small and medium enterprises by driving organizational learning for green product innovation and expanding participation in sustainable markets.